The area was cleared for the occasion, with cameras rolling as Cruise sported Army-green military garb; several tanks were situated throughout the set.

As previously reported, All You Need Is Kill, which co-stars Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton, opens March 14, 2014; Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) is directing the film, which is based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's book and will be released from Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. It's the first movie to be filmed at the recently christened Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden near London.

The plot is set in the near future, in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have landed on Earth, destroying cities and killing millions; the world’s armies join forces for a last-stage battle.

Cruise portrays Lt. Col. Bill Cage, an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped into battle. Within minutes, he is killed while taking an alien down with him. But he awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again -- and again, like a sci-fi version of Groundhog Day, as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

Well before All You Need Is Kill hits theaters, Cruise will appear in the spy thriller Jack Reacher (release date: Dec. 13), followed by Oblivion, a space-set film from Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski due out April 12.